Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT aims to develop and expand psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility encompasses emotional openness and the ability to adapt your thoughts and behaviors to better align with your values and goals.

I not only practice from a Acceptance-Commitment Therapeutic stance but I also provide individual supervision in, as well as trained fellow Clinicians in the application of Acceptance Commitment Therapy. Acceptance-Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a mindfulness-based therapy that incorporates elements of Buddhist mindfulness meditation and newer behavioral therapy techniques. Member of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science - https://contextualscience.org/

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT therapy) is a type of mindful psychotherapy that helps you stay focused on the present moment and accept thoughts and feelings without judgment. It aims to help you move forward through difficult emotions so you can put your energy into healing instead of dwelling on the negative.

ACT is a form of mindfulness-based therapy that focuses on concrete steps to assist you in accepting and working with the normal difficulties of life. Specifically, we will look at traits and behaviors that stop keep you stuck in negative thought patterns and will work to reduce avoidant and unhelpful coping strategies.

My training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) began early as a PhD student and continued on through my post-doctoral specialization. I find ACT's core message to be what life is all about - learning to live with the inevitable pain of being human in service of a rich, meaningful life. ACT provides purposeful insight into what matters most to us and teaches skills to help us live in alignment with those core values.

Acceptance involves acknowledging and embracing the full range of your thoughts and emotions rather than trying to avoid, deny, or alter them.

This is the main modality of treatment that I utilize.

Our staff have extensive experience in ACT and other mindfulness-based treatments. We believe that fostering present-moment awareness and a nonjudgmental stance toward self and others can help people better tolerate unpleasant emotions, grow in self-acceptance, and become more open to the varied nature of the human experience.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps you embrace life's challenges while staying true to your values. Instead of fighting painful thoughts or feelings, ACT teaches you to accept them as part of your experience. You focus on what truly matters to you and commit to actions that align with your values. It’s about living a meaningful life, even when things get tough, by learning to handle stress in a way that doesn’t hold you back from what you care about most.

Knowing what you value in life can be leveraged to create meaningful, lasting change. I have experience teaching individuals and groups the foundational skills of ACT that can be applied to an array of situations.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a helpful tool when managing chronic issues commonly found in mental health, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, and trauma. ACT works by working with the symptoms and normalizing issues related to one's mental health. All too often I find that, unfortunately, many shame themselves for struggling with their mental health. ACT helps you clearly see your mental health as being part of you, but also how you are so much more.

While CBT tends to my first line of treatment for most clients, I will typically implement elements of ACT throughout therapy. CBT is great for helping clients with the things that they can change, but, admittedly, it falls a bit short when it comes to accepting and coping with the unchangeable. This is why I have found great success teaching clients not only mindfulness, including meditation practices, but also utilizing acceptance techniques to aid clients in living their best life.

I have received training in ACT and find it to be very helpful for folks that are experiencing anxiety/PTSD symptoms/depression/etc.

As a psychologist, I utilize Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help clients embrace their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or feeling guilty for them. This approach promotes psychological flexibility, encouraging individuals to align their actions with their values, leading to a more fulfilling life. Through ACT, clients learn to navigate life's challenges with greater ease and less internal struggle.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is about learning to identify the aspects of your life that you cannot change, learning to identify the things you can, and learning how to commit yourself to changing those changeable things, including your mindset, your feelings, and how you navigate life.

I began my specialized training in treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related anxiety disorders early in my career under the mentorship of OCD specialist Dr. Steven Phillipson. Through multiple years of training with OCD specialists and at leading military treatment facilitites I have obtained obtained expertise in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), the gold-standard treatment approach for OCD.

My previous and current work as a provider has prioritized giving the individuals I meet with the necessary coping skills to not only better recognize their symptoms, but also to better understand and manage them in their day-to-day lives. I have found ACT to be particularly helpful in treating complex anxiety, OCD, and trauma as it emphasizes the idea of accepting our reality (doesn't mean we have to be okay with it) while also being intentional with our actions.

I have always been drawn to ACT because it is based on the foundation that when we can truly accept ourselves for who we are and what we are going through, then our body can feel safe enough to make change in how we relate to ourselves. I also have done research in how ACT can be a useful orientation for treating ADHD and anxiety.

ACT is a type of Cognitive Behavior Therapy that focuses on being able to live a rich and meaningful life, with all the ups and downs that life throws at us. We focus on finding out what "makes you tick" and on becoming less constrained by the effects of anxiety, depression, and other unhelpful patterns, so you can do more of what makes you feel engaged with life. In ACT, we acknowledge that we aren't perfect, our lives aren't perfect, and we can find enjoyment and fulfillment in spite of this.